Norman Bel Geddes interior-design sketch for Palais Royal
Norman Bel Geddes (American, 1893-1958) Geddes’s design of a dancing couple for the Palais Royal Cabaret Theatre Ca. 1922 Watercolor on paper Courtesy Norman Bel Geddes online database, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin Jack Cole danced at the Palais Royal in December 1933. It was Cole’s first nightclub gig. The building, which ...
REVIEW: Savion Glover sizzling at the Ford 2
It is a Dance Criticism 401 assignment describing Savion Glover in performance — savagely fit, in top form, at his most forthcoming. Words fall short. Yet that is what we had at Saturday’s festive season-opener of the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. The refurbished Ford’s long commitment to dance, season after season presenting local and visiting ...
Gwen calls out Bob’s choreography in Gap commercial 4
Jul
16
2017
In a 1999 interview, Gwen Verdon (1925 – 2000) expressed mild exasperation at the use of choreography by Bob Fosse (1927 – 1987) in a commercial by The Gap. “It’s very interesting that right now there is “Go Go Khaki,” a commercial for The Gap. They are doing the Frug. It’s amazing. They are not ...
Savion Glover vs. Ford Amphitheatre soundwall
Jul
13
2017
A sound-worthy evening awaits us Saturday as the beloved John Anson Ford Amphitheatre is poised and ready for its festive inaugural season-opening night, a re-opening after a major retrofit. A noisy tumult normally accompanies an event at the Ford, which is set in a natural hollow of the Cahuenga Pass, but faces off with a ...
Photographer Carinthia West rolls with the Stones in Malibu 1
Jul
13
2017
Carinthia West’s intimate photographs of Mick Jagger, Helen Mirren, Anjelica Huston, David Bowie and Ron Wood among others languished for years in boxes in an attic and she never dreamed of exhibiting these personal memories. Many of these photographs taken between 1975 and 1985, center around Malibu, where an eclectic group of friends would gather ...
It’s Savion time … at the spanking new Ford Amphitheatre
Jul
10
2017
Saturday night there’s only one place to be. That’s at the much loved, super historic John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, fully renovated after its multi-phase expansion. We’ve been clued in that the Ford’s $75 million re-do is nothing less than “gorgeous.” A real stunning gift to our little hamlet of Los Angeles. Breaking in the stage ...
Patricia Morison remembers … Martha Graham, Kiss Me Kate, more 6
We so enjoyed a charming conversation with Broadway and Hollywood doyenne Patricia Morison at her Los Angeles home July 6, 2017. The originator of the role of “Kate” in Kiss Me Kate, still vivacious and chatty at age 102, shared happy memories of her career. She took special care to describe the role that dance ...
Hungarian-born Laguna Beach painter Joseph Kleitsch @ PMCA
Jul
7
2017
The career of Joseph Kleitsch (1882–1931) comprises early work as a portraitist in his native Hungary and in Chicago and spans to his impressionist landscapes painted in California during his later years. Kleitsch continued to paint figurative works after his move to California in 1920 and was considered the premiere portrait painter in the ...
We’re not little old ladies. And we’re not from Pasadena. But we’re going to ‘Jan & Dean’s Beach Party’ at Levitt Pavilion.
Jul
6
2017
Even though we hear there are gonna be two girls for every boy. And that sucks! Bring your surfboards to hear Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean sing “Little Old Lady from Pasadena”, “Dead Man’s Curve” and “Surf City” along with his group of musicians who have performed with both Jan & Dean and The ...
Seeking Nijinsky’s unrealized ‘Sarabande’ ballet at Turocy workshop
Jul
5
2017
Nijinsky left behind the seeds of an unfinished ballet he began in 1913. That was the rather infamous year in which the dancer/choreographer unveiled his provocative The Rite of Spring to the shock and awe of le tout Paris. He also premiered Jeux, an overtly sensual ballet for three—a love triangle—that subtly foreshadowed the oncoming ...